How much until overclocking matters?

[AsGoodAsAHacker]

If I have 947MHz Stock core clock and I bring it to 1Ghz, will this make a difference? I just want to know if tiny adjustments will effect performance in a decent way.

[WoodenMarker]

Higher clock speed = higher performance--think of it as a wheel's rpm and distance traveled for performance. Overclocking makes as big of a difference as you push it as long as you can use more performance. 

[SpecTre12345]

Depends on the game really, some games can yield a decent amount of fps after a nice overclock, while others will yield like 2-3 fps even after a massive overclock. Point being, the more you overclock the more performance you get. Certain games respond better to overclocking, which is why you should try to find your highest stable overclock and go with it.

[Humbug]

I have an R9 290 as well. I clocked it up to 1130Mhz once just for fun and it was perfectly stable, could have gone a lot higher. But I end up leaving it at stock since the performance is such that I already max out games with AA at 1080p. At some point when games get more demanding I'm sure I will leave the overclock on permanently.

 

Anyway download fraps and measure the performance impact of overclocking. You can also use in-game benchmarks such as the ones in Tomb Raider, Civilization BE etc...

[ComradeHX]

It matters if you can keep a more stable framerate above 60 and/or get a 10-20fps increase.

[Snadzies]

If I can't get at least 10% higher clock speeds then I don't bother.